Hi Mark - What a great comment! And thank you very much for your kind words and compliments. As a former journalist, freelance writer, and communications director at a university, I can relate to a lot of what you said. I've written a ton of nonfiction, with the majority being centered on science and also health and fitness. But I've also written my share of business articles, though I doubt they were nearly as in-depth as what you described. Though fiction is my first love (and it's probably all I would have written had I not needed a day job), I enjoyed my nonfiction stories -- especially when I wrote narrative pieces for magazines -- a lot more than I expected. As for your novel, I wish you the best of luck!!! You're beyond needing my advice, but my first reaction is a relatively typical one: don't be afraid to write a crappy first draft. The older I've gotten, the more I've allowed myself to do this. It definitely lengthens the revision process in almost excruciating fashion, but it gets the job done in the end. 😀
Jim - I'm not a fantasy writer, or maybe I am. I write for business, I write about business, I write about real estate, oil & gas and things happening my city, not as intrepid journalist (though I get the occasional scoop - followed by calls from main stream journalists aghast at why I would speculate, only to find out a day or two later that I did indeed scoop them), but otherwise that's non-fiction for me as writer and for my readers. As are interviews I do and publish. About 21 years ago my poor attempts at 'making things up' graduated from 'stretching the truth' to write a daily column which I moved to Substack in March this year - and I'm so grateful for many readers of my Musings [ https://markmusing.substack.com/ ]. Thank you Jim for your readership and likes/comments. Thank you too for spreading the word about my words and I appreciate that for obvious reasons, and my audience is slowly growing. By the way, if you can spread any of that magic dust to convert free readers to paid ones, I'm all years! Back to fiction, I've been working for several years on a 'first novel', which I pick and put down periodically. I'm back at lately, investing time in it daily. It's a thriller that might be 'Jason Bourne with class' or 'Bond with a real life' ... and each time I write or re-write pages in that I'm crossing that line of made-up plausible story. But when I write those sentences, I know I''m inhabiting my characters - imagining what they might feel, so it's fantasy/fantastic playing with fake people as if they were real. When I read 'good fantasy' like yours, I'm inspired by your courageous efforts and feel encouraged to do more with mine. Cheers, Mark
As finely wrought as anything I've read in this genre! Just bought the Kindle version.
Thank you! This means a lot to me coming from a writer as talented as you are.
Magic is the only way to be ❤️
Hi Mark - What a great comment! And thank you very much for your kind words and compliments. As a former journalist, freelance writer, and communications director at a university, I can relate to a lot of what you said. I've written a ton of nonfiction, with the majority being centered on science and also health and fitness. But I've also written my share of business articles, though I doubt they were nearly as in-depth as what you described. Though fiction is my first love (and it's probably all I would have written had I not needed a day job), I enjoyed my nonfiction stories -- especially when I wrote narrative pieces for magazines -- a lot more than I expected. As for your novel, I wish you the best of luck!!! You're beyond needing my advice, but my first reaction is a relatively typical one: don't be afraid to write a crappy first draft. The older I've gotten, the more I've allowed myself to do this. It definitely lengthens the revision process in almost excruciating fashion, but it gets the job done in the end. 😀
Hi Zane. I'm just now seeing this. Thanks for purchasing!!!! I very much appreciate that. 😀
Jim - I'm not a fantasy writer, or maybe I am. I write for business, I write about business, I write about real estate, oil & gas and things happening my city, not as intrepid journalist (though I get the occasional scoop - followed by calls from main stream journalists aghast at why I would speculate, only to find out a day or two later that I did indeed scoop them), but otherwise that's non-fiction for me as writer and for my readers. As are interviews I do and publish. About 21 years ago my poor attempts at 'making things up' graduated from 'stretching the truth' to write a daily column which I moved to Substack in March this year - and I'm so grateful for many readers of my Musings [ https://markmusing.substack.com/ ]. Thank you Jim for your readership and likes/comments. Thank you too for spreading the word about my words and I appreciate that for obvious reasons, and my audience is slowly growing. By the way, if you can spread any of that magic dust to convert free readers to paid ones, I'm all years! Back to fiction, I've been working for several years on a 'first novel', which I pick and put down periodically. I'm back at lately, investing time in it daily. It's a thriller that might be 'Jason Bourne with class' or 'Bond with a real life' ... and each time I write or re-write pages in that I'm crossing that line of made-up plausible story. But when I write those sentences, I know I''m inhabiting my characters - imagining what they might feel, so it's fantasy/fantastic playing with fake people as if they were real. When I read 'good fantasy' like yours, I'm inspired by your courageous efforts and feel encouraged to do more with mine. Cheers, Mark
Thanks for the promo, snapped up your book after that prologue. Sounds like fun grilling read.